The Story of Tobit: A Comparative Literary Analysis

The story of Tobit builds on various themes derived from myth, legend and folktale. Tobiah’s journey recalls Homer’s Odyssey, the suffering of the righteous brings to mind the legend of Job, and the narrative around a disgraced and then rehabilitated official evokes the story of Aḥiqar. The author of Tobit seeks to exploit his readers’ knowledge of these stories in order to convey his message more effectively: he encourages them to trust in divine providence that intervenes on behalf of the faithful. This volume, based on essays previously published in Italian, collected and translated into English, and some still unedited, written directly in English for this book, charts Tobit’s narrative sources through comparative literary analysis, firmly placing the story in the genre of the didactic and edifying religious novel.